Yo voy a buscar la verdura

I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll be able to stutter through my first market experience as I have been practicing Spanish lessons this last week.

SPANISH PHRASEBOOK CHOICE BLUNDER

I brought with me Langenscheidt Jiffy Phrasebook that I purchased years ago before my Berlitz experience. It pretty much sucks and is useless for me. It doesn't contain a Spanish to English dictionary, so you get stuck very quickly when trying to decipher Spanish signs or menus. The book is grouped into situations, hence "phrasebook", but it is all one-way conversation. Essentially, this is a listing of phases that you use to command, compliment, or complain.

BERLITZ ESSENTIAL SPANISH GOOD

yes

I also brought my Berlitz Essential Spanish classroom book. This book has been very helpful in getting words into sentences and into conversations. I took the Berlitz course about 10 years ago. At the time, it didn’t get me speaking fluently. Yet, I must say that my return to the language, the Berlitz course has overwhelmingly come through in my word recall. If you're considering taking the Berlitz courses for language, then I'll have to put in a good word and say YES. However, the book I own doesn't have audio.

There are numerous free lessons on podcasts. Search "languages" in iTunes. Some podcasts are better than others. Maybe this will make your decisions easier than downloading a bunch. Here's what I've discovered:

SpanishPod101.com - You can subscribe for free and get a 7-day trial. The lessons are organized pretty clearly. They include PDF files with a breakdown of the lesson dialog and additional sentences using newly learned words. The chit-chat between the hosts can get very annoying, but then again, it can be helpful because they discuss insightful cultural differences. The lessons also contain region specific use of language.

I assume this group is associated with SpanishPod, a different podcast with two and three of instructors in dialog using Spanish and English. Apparently it is a spanish language demonstration and discussion lesson. Their chit chat is truly annoying to me.

Learn to Speak Spanish with Discover Spanish, with Johnny Spanish. This is a very basic introduction to Spanish and if you are just beginning this would probably help you a lot. I like the host, but I haven't listened to this one as much.

Spanish 360 with Fabiana. Doesn't work for me yet, as it is a bit more advanced.

You can find these podcasts on iTunes store for free trial.

If you have any suggestions for Spanish lessons, learning, or just fun things to do to learn Spanish quicker, let me know!! Love to hear your experience with learning language.